– Prof. Salim Rashid
Suppose a road is to be built and land needs to be acquired for this purpose. Suppose further that there is no dispute about the need for a new or improved road. If my land is acquired, say for a road, I will only be paid a nominal compensation. So I will fight to avoid acquisition. Surrounding land values will shoot up. All my neighbors will make millions because of the road on my land. Is this fair? What did my neighbors do to deserve such a windfall gain and what did I do not to get a share?
Equity requires that my neighbors share the unearned increment with me. Why not tax part of my neighbor’s incremental value, to compensate me and to support the costs of road construction?
The most important point is to agree to the equitable principle of this rough schema.
Then we will also see that this proposal requires good land records and acceptable land valuation mechanisms. Hence the three parts of the discussion.
Our task is to discover what enabling laws are needed from the GoB to sustain such a participatory mechanism.